Gregg Williams Could Have Been Miami’s Problem

Imagine the twists of fate that go on around us everyday.  Some small, some not so small, some blow up in your face.  If we rewind the clocks back to the end of the 2011 regular season we would see the Miami Dolphins pursuit of the then unemployed Jeff Fisher.  So close Miami appeared to be that all Stephen Ross would have had to do was take away final say from Jeff Ireland.  Had he done that, we would be talking about Gregg Williams right now instead of Peyton Manning.

Gregg Williams is the closest coaching friend that Jeff Fisher has had in his entire career.  He is also the St. Louis Rams’ new defensive coordinator.  He is also, if you don’t already know, one of the most talked about controversial coaches in the NFL right now.  So much so that the squeaky clean image of the New Orleans Saints is shattered and every day more and more former Williams’ players and fellow coaches are coming out to the media and the NFL.

It all centers around Gregg Williams’ “bounty system”.  Williams encouraged players to go after opposing offensive players.  Jonathan Vilma the ex-LB in New Orleans dropped 10K on a locker room table to anyone who would knock out an opposing player…presumably at the time Brett Favre.  The NFL has investigated and found that a “bounty system” was in fact being used by Williams in New Orleans.  It’s also being reported Williams used the “bounty system” in Washington and Buffalo and Tony Dungy said on air that he believes the same to be true when Williams was at Tennessee…with Jeff Fisher.

The league is going to come down hard on the Saints and it’s expected to be heavy.  Fines probably, but some speculate that the team could lose their first round pick…they don’t have one this year as they traded it to New England last season but next years 2013 pick could be gone.  Then of course there is the matter of Williams.  He will likely be fined and suspended and there are some who believe he should be fired.  All this is bringing a lovely black eye to Jeff Fisher.

Fisher turned down the Dolphins job because he apparently never got final say, something he supposedly would get in St. Louis.  In the short time that he has been hired, he has watched his new owner try and swing a deal to play one home game a year in London, a deal later shot down due to commitments to the dome lease in which they play.  The owner also has been back and forth with his attempts to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers and still may eventually move the team back to L.A.

So much for quietly settling into his new gig.

The Rams also of course hold the number 2 overall pick that they are desperately trying to trade.  The NFL won’t discipline the St. Louis Rams for Williams’ actions as they happened in other cities but the Rams will likely enter the season with either a different defensive coordinator or an interim one while Williams serves his suspension.

To think that with everything that has gone wrong in Miami from the drafting of Ted Ginn, Jr. to the Cam Cameron “You will love him returning punts and the whole Ted Ginn family” comments, to the Pat White pick, Chad Henne booing, Kyle Orton chanting, to the final game flyby of a “Fire Jeff Ireland” banner, it’s surprising that with the past the Dolphins have been enduring Fisher wouldn’t have selected Miami so we could have this on our plate as well.

Nope, for once, this is someone else’s problem.